120 Beats Per Minute

Time Out says

4 out of 5 stars

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Users say
(3)

5 out of 5 stars

Time Out says

4 out of 5 stars

With passion and sensitivity, this French drama throws us into the Aids crisis in 1990s Paris.

Quietly epic, sad but never sentimental, and blissfully at ease with sex as life not death, ‘120 Beats Per Minute’ throws us into the debates and protests of Act-Up Paris, an Aids awareness campaigning group in early 1990s Paris. We follow Act-Up at their weekly meetings, at Gay Pride and during direct actions – in the offices of a medical research company, in a school playground and in the middle of a politician’s speech. Alongside its very public dramas and deft portrayal of group solidarity, the film leans in on one campaigner, Sean (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), as he falls in love with fellow activist Nathan (Arnaud Valois) and comes to terms with his own diagnosis and mortality.

‘120 Beats’ is written and directed by Robin Campillo, who co-wrote 2008’s Palme d’Or-winning ‘The Class’, and the chatty, lively mass meetings here will be familiar if you remember that earlier film’s sparkling classroom debate. With long scenes of discussion and collective action, this is an ensemble piece that honours and remembers a milestone of social activism. If that sounds dull, it isn’t: these are a colourful, funny, engaged bunch, and their humour lightens the film’s inevitable march toward death.

Campillo’s film has a furious forward momentum that’s inspired by the determination of its characters and bolstered by Arnaud Rebotini’s house-music score. But that same forward movement is occasionally shackled and slowed down by the weight of mourning and loss. This sagging of the shoulders – the lows after the highs – feels appropriate and true, of course, but coupled with some meandering of the story it means that the film can lag and stall. It’s in its more private moments that ‘120 Beats’ excels. The sex scenes between Sean and Nathan are beautifully handled, and the film’s final chapter is a sensitive and poignant reminder of what the political fight is in the end all about – love and life and death.

I had high expectations of Robin Campillo, loving the films he wrote for Laurent Cantet (Time Out, Heading South, The Class). But even these were exceeded with Campillo demonstrating a strikingly original directorial voice of his own. Long weekly meetings which might otherwise be dull give birth to human bonds of solidarity and passion as well as bold, imaginative actions, driven by anger, frustration and desperation in the face of death. Tactical questions arise on dealing with pharma companies (e.g for being too slow) and partying 'zombies' at Gay Pride, well-told. Close focus on heads and bodies glow with passion and intensity, and on the gutting agony of fading. The ravey music is not anthemic but full of telling space: Jimmy Somerville's voice sounds boldly as Bronski Beat are stripped back. Different aspects of the story link through magical fades. Thoroughly deserved to win the Grand Jury prize at Cannes (should have got the Palme d'Or in my book) and to me beat Loveless and The Square hands down. Unmissable!

A phenomenal touching film that shows what it means to be alive. Each character's journey is perfectly imperfect allowing you to really see and feel their reality. A genuine emotional rollercoaster, that leaves you drained but also full of energy to fight for your cause.